Flying the Ring of Fire, Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski to Anchorage, Alaska!

Natural beauty of Kamchatka is better than any place on earth I have ever visited. Koryaksky, the 12000 ft. volcano, towers over the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatski and it’s airport. People are extremely friendly and helpful. My plane is first piston engine plane that landed here in years. Everyone at the Airport came to see, take pictures and help me. My fuel pump is pretty small so it took more than two hours to refuel.

The flying path from Kamchatka to Anchorage is the most active part of Ring of Fire. The Kamchatka Peninsula in Far East Russia is one of the most various and active volcanic areas in the world. It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Okhotsk to the west. The 10,500-m-deep Kuril-Kamchatka Trench, where rapid subduction of the Pacific Plate fuels the intense volcanism. Almost all types of volcanic activity are present, from stratovolcanoes and shield volcanoes to Hawaiian-style fissure eruptions.

All the Aleutian Islands have formed due to volcanic eruptions. Over 30 active volcanoes and hundreds of dormant and extinct volcanoes are in two major volcanic belts. It is beautiful but scary to fly past so many Volcanoes. As it was my last leg before entering USA, I needed to clear customs. The closest custom clearing Airport in Aleutian Islands was Cold Bay, 450 miles past the range of my plane. So, I planned to land on my way at Adak to refuel. I must have forgotten about the time change as I reached Adak at 10 PM. Fortunately it was still a bit of daylight left as the airport runway was not lighted and hard to see. It is hard to imagine someone would even want to live in such remote isolated place. Anyway, I refueled, stayed overnight and headed off to Cold Bay next morning. Upon reaching Cold Bay, I was told there was no customs office there anymore and I must fly to Anchorage to clear customs. I reached Anchorage past 11:00 PM, waited for an hour for custom officer to arrive. Cleared custom, parked my plane and headed to hotel. It was 1:30 AM in the morning when I checked in the hotel. The longest flying day of this entire trip. I was extremely tired, but did not care. I am back home in USA and could not be happier. I am fortunate to call USA my home, it is the home of the FREE. I am free, don’t need any permits, can do what I want!